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         ISSUE 11        23.10.07        SHARE IT        SUBSCRIBE
Without intention, this issue seems to skew itself thematically towards the beauty of the collaboration – artists with musicians, men with women, op shops with designers, top models with the homeless. And of course, the upcoming re-launch of the Wall, raising money for Heaps Decent, as sponsored by Yours Truly. It’s easy to tie these teamworking trends to current affairs – and wouldn’t it be great if our politicians would take note? (…They read Throw Shapes, right?)

But no, instead of a harmony between leaders and citizens, the next few weeks will be filled with a disturbing incongruity: Being told we’re too distrustful and disengaged with politics, and then being told why we shouldn’t trust or engage with either side. Take it all with a grain of salt, or at least a grain of satire. Oh, and Happy Halloween.
 
 
 
 
ETSY.COM
Etsy.com is like EBay, but hand-stitched. A mecca of arty and crafty goods, it’s the best place to go for a last-minute birthday present. If you’re a particularly bad and largely unethical friend, you can even pretend you made it yourself. The website launched in June 2005, and now they’ve got over 100 000 mind-bendingly creative types bringing their one-offs to the world. So basically it’s like visiting a craft fair without having to put up with fruitcake, doilies, children and hippies. And they have a Halloween Showcase too.
    WAYSIDE GAELIC THEATRE 01 NOVEMBER

The Wayside Chapel opened in 1964, and has since become one of Sydney’s most well-known and inspirational halfway houses for the homeless, abused, dispossessed and anyones-who-need-it. To the side of the chapel is “Beatniks and Bohemians” – an miniscule op shop which, while all too easy to overlook, raises around 25% of Wayside’s annual revenue.

For the last five years, the Chapel has teamed up with the op-shop to put on a bit of a fashion show for fundraising. What started as a low key event held at the chapel itself has taken on a number of forms, and this year has become a bit of a beast – an explosion of music, fashion and art. We have an inkling of a suspicion that this is largely due to Beth James, a young woman who’s past workplaces have included the office of stylist Fleur Wood, Madison Magazine, and the creative marketing agency New Dialogue. Recruited by the power of a good cause and blessed by the power of good connections, this is her first year on the project.

“I wanted to do a good deed, some charity work at the beginning of the year. A friend mentioned the Wayside Chapel and I looked in to it and was touched by their

  incredible efforts with the homeless people of the Kings Cross / Inner-City precinct. I spoke to the marketing manager, and she said they do a fashion show every year and it’s a huge fundraiser for the chapel… She asked if I would like to manage it. I said yes, and the idea was born.”

The Gaelic Theatre have donated their venue for the night, where Talullah Morton (above) and Australia’s Next Top Model contestants will be modelling the Op-Shop clothes styled by legendary designers like Marnie Skillings, Fleur Wood and Imogene Barron, the fashion editor for Yen Magazine. At the same time, thirty of Australia’s finest young artists are selling a 30x30cm one-off canvas for only $150 – including some of our favourites Eamo, Rebecca Wetzler, SmittenbyStephanie and LoveAriel. And it’s all going down to the accompaniment of local indie greats Fait Accompli, the Ripping Dylans and Tokyo Blonde.

Did we mention all of the proceeds go to one of Sydney’s greatest charities? Yes? Well, we’ll mention it again. Be there, and bring your friends.
TIX $22 + B.F. BUY NOW
WORRIED NOODLES Book and CD Pack
David Shrigley didn’t make a record himself because “it was easier not to make a record”. While this is incidentally exactly the same reason why we haven’t made a record, Shrigley wasn’t satisfied leaving it at that. Instead he made a book of lyrics written to imaginary tunes, all in typically-deranged and ever-imaginative Shrigley scrawl. It was picked up by indie label TomLab, who got some friends to put the words to music – names like Grizzly Bear, Franz Ferdinand, Hot Chip, TV On The Radio, YACHT, Deerhoof… “The songs are just so stupid, they're hilarious... But I'm not sure it'll be funny for anybody else.” We’ll be the judge of that. (No, really, we’ll review it when it comes in next week.)
EARN IT :: BOOK AND CD PACK:: CLICK HERE
NO MAN'S WOMAN Free Albums
“The idea behind No Man’s Woman originally came from a music fan’s intrigue to hear You Am I cover Patty Smith’s classic ‘Rock N Roll Nigger’.” Since then, it’s taken on a life of its own with fourteen legendary male vocalists performing songs made famous by women. As if hearing the Vines cover the Veronicas wasn’t enough, the album also features Angus Stone, Powderfinger, Paul Kelly and more, as they pay homage to XY masterminds like Bjork, Joni Mitchell, Blondie and PJ Harvey. And if you rush out to grab it now (or as soon as you can tear yourself away from this incredible issue), you get the deluxe edition with originals. Meaning you can finally own a guilt-free copy of ‘4Eva’.
EARN IT :: FREE COPY :: CLICK HERE
KOZYDAN AT OUTRE FROM 26 OCTOBER
Kozyndan are a husband and wife team based in LA whose work we have no doubt you’ve come across before. Album art, T-Shirt design, and features in Tokion, Giant Robot and Colours magazines, commercial projects for Nike, RES Fest and IDN – they’re pretty much everywhere. And they’re coming to Sydney this week, with a bunch of new prints, photographs and hand painted bunny-fish, their “pseudo-mythical creature of happiness”.

When asked what inspired their work they replied, “music and nature mostly”, and with album covers for the likes of Weezer, Lyrics Born and Postal Service, they’re clearly music lovers. So what’s the relationship between music and art? “For us they go hand in hand - I think artists from one medium tend to be more moved by other kinds of art. Visual artists draw from aural artists and vice versa. We have a lot of musician friends who really gravitate towards visual arts and are probably more into seeing art exhibitions than we ever could be, whereas we constantly have music playing while we work, and thrive off of it the imagery that sounds pull out of the depths of our subconscious.”
 
  OLD PEOPLE ARE NICE
It’s unusual that we’ll dedicate a section to someone just for blogging. Equally unusual? We find someone who's spanned three centuries and knows how to use a computer better than we do. Although we were slightly disturbed by the Antiques Roadshow Slash Fiction she kept posting, we still wish Olive Hardy a happy 108th birthday for last Friday. She YouTubes as well. Is there an emoticon for reverence? }:--&(,? Maybe?		  
 
CONTROL Dendy Cinemas  
From 25 October
Anton Corbijn has directed pretty much every Depeche Mode music video ever, as well as clips for Echo & The Bunnymen, Joy Division and the equally-admirable, shut-up-we-love-them Roxette. Control is his first feature, a B&W biopic about Joy Division’s epileptic frontman Ian Curtis, based on a book by his wife. We probably don’t need to sell it to you any more (an epileptic frontman, people), but for what it’s worth it features an exceptional performance by Sam Riley, who played the lead singer of The Fall in 24 Hour Party People. And it premiered at Cannes to Very High Acclaim - a day prior to the anniversary of Curtis’ suicide.
WIN IT :: DOUBLE PASS :: CLICK HERE
BABYLOVE Carriage Works  
Until 02 November
It’s always hard to find something new to do around Sydney. It’s even harder to find a giant teacup to sit in so you can glide around with a dummy-sucking, baby doll clone that plays your favourite love song. The Baby Love exhibition at CarriageWorks coincidentally offers both. A wi-fi installation from the NY-based Shu Lea Cheang, it’s been halfway across the world already and is about to head to the other half next year. Upload your favourite song here and bring a friend here before the whole thing ships away on the 2nd of November.
  IT'S FREE! JUST GO AND ENJOY THE BABYLOVE! 
DARDANELLES Spectrum  
27 October
We wouldn’t blame you for thinking the Dardanelles are a Sydney band for the amount that they play here. But we’re still not sick of them. Their EP Mirror Mirror gets better and better each listen (imagine what Midnight Juggernauts would sound like in a blackout), but it’s their live act that keeps us coming back. Shoe-gaze, post-punk, dark and mysterious, if you haven’t seen them you should and if you have you’ll want to see them again anyway. Supported by E.L.F and Reptiles.
WIN IT :: DOUBLE PASS :: CLICK HERE
KOZYNDAN... THE PLOT THICKENS
At the beginning of this month, Sony released their latest Bravia ad – the one with the bunnies. Within minutes, the ad was spread all over the internet like delicious and colourful bunny-flavoured jam. And within hours, questions started popping up. According to the love-fuelled duo, someone from Passion Pictures (the group behind the ad) contacted them around two years ago to see samples of their work - including the above right panoramic, incidentally now one of their most famous pieces. But Kozyndan never heard from them again. You can see the problem, right?

We asked them what the deal was. “Hmm – well, it is the kind of thing that would happen sooner or later, it is just inevitable. We find the discussion that comes out of the reaction on the internet to be more interesting than the actual theft itself. We don't claim that every image we've ever made is completely unique and made in a creative vacuum, all artwork is a bouncing forth of ideas within our human culture. I think that what it comes down to is where the line is drawn between inspiration and plagiarism. Obviously the ad industry would like to draw the line much further in one direction than individual artists would.” Good sports.

Check them out at Outre Gallery from 26 October, with a book-signing on 27.
LES SAVY FAV Let's Stay Friends  WIN IT :: LES SAVY FAV :: CLICK HERE
Other bands may claim post-punk/rock/disco as their sonic guiding light (aka We Wish We Were Gang of Four Gang), them with fancy fringes and fluorory tees. After a couple of years in the wilderness, Les Savy Favy have reclaimed this sound then gaffa’d it to whatever muse drove Ulysses to take on a Cyclops, eat his best friend in pig form, muck around in hell and then bust back upstairs to tenderly fuck his wife. Sleeting guitars, echoey scream choruses, slinky drums and even romantic duets; LSF have given a taut, angular, pop odyssey to the people. (MR)
RELEASED ON SUB POP / STOMP 08 OCTOBER > MYSPACE

BEIRUT The Shepherds Dog
Zach Condon was only 19 when he came out with the blog-lauded Gulag Orkestar - an explosive Balkan masterpiece well beyond his years and geography – and which was my personal 2006 fave. The 8-headed Orkestar join him again on Flying Club Cup, bringing the recognizable Russian flavour to an otherwise French-inspired album. Recorded in Arcade Fire’s Masonic Church studio (and utilising the menagerie of instruments therein), the layers are clear, seamless, intimate and extraordinary with Condon’s astonishing voice gliding above the whole. He’s now 21. (SH)
RELEASED ON INERTIA 16 OCTOBER > MYSPACE
P J HARVEY White CHalk
In her 15-year career Polly Jean has released 8 unique studio albums and numerous B-side compilations, none being constrained by the style of the previous release. Her most recent Uh Huh Her was raw with muted bluesy guitar and a running theme of anguish, and with White Chalk the anguish has been multiplied ten fold. Guitar has been replaced by piano, but the driving instrument is still Harvey’s sorrowful voice. It’s dark, it’s fragile, and at only half an hour, you'll reach the depths of despair in your lunch break with time to write a poem about how you feel. (AP)
RELEASED ON MISSING LINK 15 SEPTEMBER > MYSPACE
BSS PRESENTS: KEVIN DREW  Spirit If...
Kevin Drew, founding member of Broken Social Scene, presents himself in what rumours whisper is the first in a series of albums showcasing the talents of individual members. The album’s opener ‘Farewell To The Pressure Kids’ heralds a loud start which then mellows out into what is an unfortunately mediocre release. It’s got guests-a-plenty - Feist, J Mascis, Spiral Stairs – making it end up sounding more like another BSS album than a solo effort. The epic 16 tracks will please the Social Scene fanatics - but I’m more excited about the possibility of another Feist release. (AP)
RELEASED ON SHINY/INERTIA 15 OCTOBER > MYSPACE
HOT HOT HEAT The Cruel Guard
Three albums in and Steve Bay can still write a cheeky chorus line. Difference is that now he’s got some money to play with. With string sections and slick mixing from Tim Palmer (The Cure, U2), it’s their biggest sounding record to date. ‘Outta Heart’ slows the pace with mellow pheromones and slow balladry, a sigh of relief between all the upbeat dancefloor tracks proving that Bay is capable of a heartbreaker. While belying a new maturity, the band seem to be playing it a little safe after 2002’s Make Up The Break Down, but that’s what happens when you sign to a major. (AP)
RELEASED ON WARNER 15 SEPTEMBER > MYSPACE
BOOKA SHADE DJ Kicks Mix
This is a compilation from the Berlin based duo who are new to the !K7 format. The result is an ambient flow of tunes from the likes of The Streets, Yazoo (think 1980’s), Aphex Twin and John Carpenter. The mix also includes two Booka exclusives, ‘Numbers’ and ‘Estoril’, with the album highlight a sweet Hot Chip remix of Matthew Dear’s ‘Don and Sherry’. To be taken with a cool drink on a hot Sunday afternoon, not a line of Ketamine and a nosebleed. See Ministry for that. (AP)
RELEASED ON INERTIA / !K7 27 OCTOBER > MYSPACE
 THIS WEEK WHAM! & DJ AYRES
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 LAST WEEK MUM & HOPE ST MARKETS
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Editor Steph Harmon Layout & Computer Stuff & Other Things Matt Roden
Email steph@throwshapes.com.au Address 24 Bayswater Rd, Kings X, Sydney
Mobile 0422949374 Landline 02 9357 2744 Fax 02 9331 5511
Review Contributors Alex Pye, Lachlan Macara Photos Dominic Loneragan
 
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